theme for a fantasy campaign

[shawnhcorey]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

But if humanity burns down the forests, they lose their supplies of lumber and firewood. Also, in the eighteenth century, the century when Europe had the least forested area, weather patterns in Europe were destabalised in strange ways.

Happened many times in humans past. Tyre and Carthage were once great city states but lost their prominence because they burn all the nearby trees.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

"Hulder" is something I more associate with nymphs - attractive women who sleep with young men and steal their sanity.

Yes, they seemed sort of like kitsune, with the animal tails.

The "nymph" aspect seemed to associate them with rivers, which is why I briefly thought about the name for a river/lake/swamp race. But as with "nymph," the word seems to be primarily used for female beings, and to suggest beauty or at least powers of fascination. I did run across the seemingly gender-neutral "hulderfolk," but it had more the flavor of "elves" than of "hobbits/halflings."

I will probably stick with "troll" for the arctic/mountain race.

Bill Stoddard

[Bengt]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I require a reference for this, as it does not seem compatible with what I know about bioenergetics.

Bill Stoddard

Not exactly the same but it's organisms living of chemical energy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroth...al_communities

[Anders]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Yes, they seemed sort of like kitsune, with the animal tails.

The "nymph" aspect seemed to associate them with rivers, which is why I briefly thought about the name for a river/lake/swamp race. But as with "nymph," the word seems to be primarily used for female beings, and to suggest beauty or at least powers of fascination. I did run across the seemingly gender-neutral "hulderfolk," but it had more the flavor of "elves" than of "hobbits/halflings."

I will probably stick with "troll" for the arctic/mountain race.

Bill Stoddard

Huldre-folk are shapeshifters who live in forests or mountains. They basically ward these places from humans, except the occasional handsome youth or maiden.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Bengt

Not exactly the same but it's organisms living of chemical energy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroth...al_communities

I know about those. But I'm not proposing to envision a fantasy world with such different planetary physics as to have hydrothermal vents on land; nor to envision dwarves as being physically different enough from humans to be able to go into such places and harvest them for food. That might be a great sfnal setting, but it's not the genre I'm looking for.

Bill Stoddard

[Bengt]

If they want to grow mushrooms, they wont need light.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungiculture
They will need some kind of compost to grow it in. The dwarfs would probably need to go outside to get enough organic material for the compost though, dwarfpoop and dwarfcoprses* only go so far. But with proper fertilizer wood mulch from shrubs growing on the side of the mountain could be enough. It would mean the dwarfs have to control at least some above ground territory.

For fertilizer they could use bat guano. Obviously the bats will hunt outside, but they live in caves that are guarded and protected by the dwarves.

* It might be the most honourable thing for a dwarf to be ground (finely ground bones is the thing) into the compost and very sad to die abroad and be lost to the great circle of dwarfdom.

[Anders]

What you need is a source of energy, and any source will do. How about having thaumovoric fungi? Living near the mana fountains of the deep mountains... the dwarves may be adapted, but the mana may cause strange side effects in other races who try to eat them.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Bengt

If they want to grow mushrooms, they wont need light.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungiculture
They will need some kind of compost to grow it in. The dwarfs would probably need to go outside to get enough organic material for the compost though, dwarfpoop and dwarfcoprses* only go so far. But with proper fertilizer wood mulch from shrubs growing on the side of the mountain could be enough. It would mean the dwarfs have to control at least some above ground territory.

If they're relying on their own byproducts, you have the Perpetual Motion Fur Farm (raise rats, feed the rats to cats, skin the cats, and feed the cat bodies to the rats).

Bill Stoddard

[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

"Hulder" is something I more associate with nymphs - attractive women who sleep with young men and steal their sanity. "Thurs" is an ice troll, but "troll" and "jotun" are synonyms.

If jotuns are the same as the Danish 'jætter', denizens of Jotunheim (which seems likely), then "troll" and "jotun" are not synonyms. Jotuns are giants. Trolls are usually not very much bigger (though a lot stronger) than humans (and can be found in Midgard). I suppose some stories could have mixed them up, but some trolls live under bridges while jotuns have gloves big enough to be mistaken for caves. "Thurs" sounds like 'turser', which are ice giants.


Hans

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

What you need is a source of energy, and any source will do. How about having thaumovoric fungi? Living near the mana fountains of the deep mountains... the dwarves may be adapted, but the mana may cause strange side effects in other races who try to eat them.

This is not going to be a world with mana as an analog of energy in any sense. That whole conceptual structure in GURPS reflects the influence of 20th century scientific thinking and cost accounting. That's very different from what I'm looking for. It would make the world feel more Pratchettian than Tolkienian.

By and large cave life is pretty restricted, precisely because it has to import food from outside. Trading minerals and metals for food would allow dwarves to have much larger populations than they could sustain otherwise—and such trade is a form of importation. Moreover, trade is going to be one form of relationship among the various races.

Bill Stoddard